After It All
by LianatheWingedDrummer16
Summary: Tau Volantis was just the beginning. With the Brethren Moons awake and the risks greater than ever, Isaac, Ellie, and Carver must find a way to stop the Necromorphs before humanity truly comes to its end. *Post-Awakened*
1. Chapter 1

**Holy shit, it's been a while. To those of you who read the update, I've decided to give this whole thing a fresh start - so here we go!**

It couldn't end this way.

All that they'd worked for, everything they'd sacrificed - Danik had torn that to bits as soon as he unleashed the Moon.

It towered over them, hungry, eager to wreak its havoc upon the planet and the small group of people still left standing. The sky around it was colored a murky, bloody orange, and the disgusting tentacles protruding from its center reached for them as though preparing to tear open their bodies.

She ducked as the roof far above their heads shattered into even more fragments, her body telling her to flee even though she knew it was useless. There was no escape from a creature that big. She could probably run across the universe and it would still find her somehow.

Danik's rambling about the beginning of Convergence was cut off by a shard of stone piercing him nearly in half, and it was that of all things that made her realize they were in imminent danger. Time sped up until it became almost too fast. Her adrenaline coursed through her veins and she instinctively reached for Isaac.

He wasn't by her side. Where was he?

She spun, looking for him. The ground shifted violently under her feet and she nearly crashed into him, gripping his arms hard as she tried to regain her footing. She looked into his eyes, desperation written all across her face.

But in his gentle blue eyes there was something quite incongruous to the situation: acceptance.

_What...?_

"Ellie," Isaac said, holding tight, "when I finish this, it's all going down. Everything. You have to go."

She shook her head, anguished at the realization that he intended to stay. Why did he always have to play the goddamn hero?

Carver roughly broke in, "No! You two get outta here. Get back to Earth Space, tell them what we found. I'm staying - it's all I've got left."

"You can't stop it, Carver. Not without me. I'm the Marker killer, remember?"

So that was it, then. He felt the need to save everyone from this horror, to stop it from taking any more lives.

Ellie tried, "Isaac-"

"I turned my back on the world because I was afraid of what needed to be done," he explained. As if finally reaching some sort of peace with himself, he added, "Ellie, I'm not afraid anymore."

The ground again shook violently, but Ellie fought for her death grip on Isaac until she could stand properly, her eyes locked on his face. She watched in disbelief as he pressed a picture of himself, the one she'd torn in a fit of anger, into her hand, and her heart broke.

"There's a shuttle over there," he said, his voice barely reaching her ears through her shocked daze. "I want you to take it and head for home."

She was torn between doing the right thing and leaving them. Someone had to warn Earth of the new threat, the fact that their problems had reached the planet-sized scale, but this had been her mission, the goal she'd given up so much for. She couldn't leave it unfinished.

She couldn't leave Isaac and Carver to die, either.

But she had to.

She threw herself at him, unable to bear the prospect of him being gone from her life permanently, and kissed him full on the mouth like her life depended on it. The contact lasted three, four seconds - and then they separated. She gazed at him desperately, trying to memorize every last detail of the man she loved.

He pushed her to the shuttle, calling, "Don't come back for me. We both know I'm not going home!"

_Why?_

Her heart was screaming at her to stay, but she forced herself to move, away to the shuttle, climbing inside and buckling in as her throat clogged with tears impossible to shed.

She finally stopped the shuttle a safe distance away from the Moon, watching as the gigantic Necromorph crashed into the planet.

There was no way either of them could have survived, but she had to know. For sure.

Quietly, she pushed the comms button. "Isaac?" she whispered. "Isaac, are you there?"

There was nothing but despairing silence. Her head bowed under the weight of her grief. "Carver? Isaac? You're gone, aren't you?"

The words were painful to get out. Each syllable was like admitting defeat, and her own failure to realize what she had risked and lost pursuing the mission. Why hadn't she seen it before?

She rested her chin in her hand, trying not to look at the picture on the dashboard and all the baggage it carried. Not a single one of the instruments displayed gave any data, as though silently mourning with her.

Wait.

She glanced at one of the readings again. "The Marker signal," she realized aloud. "It's gone too!" It truly was - there were no waves coming across the scanner, nothing to show. Nothing but dead silence, something she was actually grateful for.

A smile broke across her face. "You did it, Isaac! You really did it."

He had saved numerous lives by destroying the Moon. He had been a hero, yet again, but lost his life in the process.

The smile faded at the thought, and she looked away, into the cold void of space, sitting back in her chair.

She had to get home.

The computerized voice chirped away as she confirmed the coordinates to Earth, and choking back a sob, she waited for the ship to take her there. Warning Earth was her priority now. Isaac wasn't with her to do it, like he had been for the majority of their time together, but she would do it. For him.

Even if she could start over and find a new life somehow, she would never forget what had transpired on Tau Volantis. The price had been too high, but then again, what were two people compared with the entire human race?

_The world is ending, and all you can think about is us?_

He had been right to think that. The world didn't give a shit and never had, while he had been her life.

And now he was gone.

She bitterly regretted every vicious fight they had ever had. The end didn't justify the means at all - it wasn't even worth the smallest bit. If only she could tell the future, this whole thing could have been avoided.

But of course, it's impossible to reverse the apocalypse.

**Yay, first chapter! I'm glad to get back to this. It actually... feels good. Almost like I was missing something.**

**I sincerely hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again! I hope the last weeks have been good to all of you since the last update.**

**For those of you just jumping on the bandwagon, this story used to be called Unfinished Business. It used to have 18 chapters, and was my idea of what Dead Space 4 would be like and how they would finally end the Necromorph invasion. However, I realized that not only did I fuck up the characters' personalities, I focused too much on the relationship between Isaac and Ellie rather than an actual compelling plot. Admittedly, the plot wasn't my main concern initially, but let's see if I can write a good plot while capturing both the characters properly and writing the proper amount of romance, not choking everyone with fluff.**

**Thanks for the 150-plus hits, guys. I really appreciate it! And I hope you are all enjoying the story thus far.**

**Onward!**

Ellie shivered as the memory finally left her head. It was as if her body and brain would never forgive her for what had transpired at Tau Volantis. Those images would be burned in her mind forever.

_Not now, _she thought, forcing the recollection out of mind with a grimace. _I have to focus._

She had to keep working. For Isaac. She would stop it all, this time, for sure. It was her duty to him.

After arriving on Earth, she had immediately informed Earth Space of the possible threat. She didn't know how they let her get away without questioning her. Perhaps it had been the absolute look of desperation on her face, or the blood and burns still stinging her skin. At any rate, they had immediately issued a global warning after hearing a winded explanation from her, and now there was nothing to do but wait to see what would happen. The whole world was holding its breath, it seemed.

For Ellie, however, she had to get together another group. Initially she thought it was finally over after destroying one Moon, but a newscast on the holographic TV had shown her how very wrong she was. There were still outbreaks happening everywhere, thankfully except for Earth as of yet. Although it was only a matter of time... She couldn't shake the feeling that it was only the beginning.

She needed experienced people whom she could trust to have her back, and research everything they could to end the Necromorph invasions on other colonies and hopefully for good. It was hard work, not rewarding in the least, but she had managed to snag a couple of leads and possible contacts.

Going back to living on Earth had been a simple and quiet business. As soon as she had landed in Torino, one of the last intact cities in the Pan European sector, she'd ditched the ship, rented a cheap apartment with the near-nonexistent amount of credits she'd scrounged up, and gotten a job to pay for the minimal expenses. In her free time she searched for people who might be able to help, looking for hours each evening at those who just might be interested in saving humanity.

She couldn't go to EarthGov, as they were only interested in harnessing the Markers' power, and wouldn't want to destroy them forever, no matter how much damage their research over the years had caused to the human population. Finding the last remnants of their forces would be hard enough, and she would likely waste time searching for them only to be turned down. Unitologists were out of the question, as they worshiped the sick ideology... Her only option was to hunt down people who had been partial to neither group, but were also educated about the Markers and knew exactly what they did and perhaps how to stop them.

She needed to find members of resistance groups. It was a pity they couldn't just advertise themselves in a war like this, however convenient that might have been for her. They were already risking their necks by forming their own side, and of course wouldn't have time to document the actions of a covert military group. Life was hard enough already, and Unitology threatened to cast its dark shadow over everything.

Perhaps scientists who had formerly worked aboard planetcrackers would do the job. They would have some knowledge after all, and might be willing to help considering all that had transpired aboard them.

Ellie frowned, tapping her fingers idly.

That is, if they hadn't all been killed first.

She hesitated, long fingers paused over the keyboard. Well, she had to start somewhere...

She hit _enter _after typing in _USG Ishimura crew members._ There was a chance that some of them could have escaped the doomed ship before it all went to hell. Most of the escape pods had been intact, from what Isaac had told her.

Ellie's eyes flicked to his picture, taped carefully to the wall above her computer. She sighed and leaned back, blinking her eyes heavily and stretching.

Her body was so very tired and beaten down, but she couldn't rest. Innocent people were dying far away in other colonies, simply for living in the wrong place, and she knew Isaac would want to save them. He had always been that way, and of course some of his ideas had rubbed off on her.

"Always the goddamn hero," Ellie murmured quietly.

The page was taking a while to load, with her apartment's shitty connection, so she stood up and poured herself a cup of coffee as milky streaks of light just peeked through the dirty windows.

She stared out of her run-of-the-mill apartment's kitchen window, clutching her mug of barely palatable coffee as she contemplated the future. An invasion was bound to happen soon, there was no doubt about that. And her current residence was so crowded that a single Necromorph could do irreparable damage and turn everyone into fodder within a matter of hours.

She needed more time, but of course the going was slow. At times like these it was all she could do to toil on and pray for the best.

Her RIG beeped with another call, almost startling her in the dim silence of her tiny home. Wordlessly, she glanced at the notification on her wrist monitor, then ended the call without listening to it, hoping against hope that this would be the last. Ever since returning from Tau Volantis, she had received dozens upon dozens of audiolinks from sources that always said _Unknown_ or _No RIG ID._ It could have been from anyone, EarthGov, Unitologists, her relatives, as unlikely as that last possibility was. But it was probably the former, people who wanted Isaac's location, and Ellie simply deleted all of them so they wouldn't get anything about him from her.

It wasn't like she could tell them much, anyways. There was no mention of him, or Carver, or even the huge Tau Volantis incident on the news, and nothing had been reported for the three weeks Ellie had been on Earth.

It was strange to her that others could be ignorant of the missing people who had destroyed a Moon. How could something that important just go unnoticed? But then again, people lost loved ones - who meant the world to them - every single day, and most others didn't have any idea of their pain. She had firsthand experience of life continuing as usual, when to her it seemed that it should be dark and gray.

Ellie took a sip, just pushing down a grimace when her RIG dinged with the unfamiliar sound of someone leaving a message. She checked her monitor, eyes widening in surprise.

The caller was still _U__nknown,_ but she hesitantly pressed the Play button.

The transmission was filled with static. It was hard to tell what the other person was even saying, but she could make out the sounds of heavy breathing, almost gasping, really.

That was the only noise for a few moments. And then -

"Ellie?"

Her eyes widened and her throat froze, a lump building almost instantaneously. As the oh-so-familiar voice breathed, "Ellie..." and the transmission cut off, tears threatened to spill down her cheeks and she mouthed "Isaac."

Her fingers loosened around the cup she held. The resounding crash and tinkling of porcelain she ignored.

He was really alive?

All the dreams Ellie had been entertaining, the idle thoughts, hopes, wishes - were all of them about to come true? She had fervently prayed for his return as many times as possible, but never before had she really believed it was really going to happen.

If only she had answered the audiolink. She might have been able to communicate with him, to hear his voice and hold a live conversation after the three weeks of deafeningly painful silence. She had called him and vice versa so many times during their time together; how could her RIG not recognize his ID?

But how long had he been up there?

It was very possible that he had tried to send that immediately after the Moon crashed. If so, he had been there for three weeks, which was certainly a very long time for someone to be alive with no sustenance, no life support. There was always the possibility he was injured as well.

Ellie stepped over the mess at her feet and headed straight for her chair, slumping into it and massaging her temples.

What if the audiolink hadn't been able to send for a while until he had somehow come into range? Had somebody been blocking their transmissions?

Was he even still alive?

She couldn't afford to get her hopes up only to crush them into dust. If Isaac really wasn't alive, and that transmission had taken a long time in coming, she wasn't sure that she could withstand the heartbreak and utter disappointment.

But if there was even the slightest chance that he was alive, she had to try. He was her mission now. Once he had sacrificed for her, coming back out of the woodwork to save her life. It was her turn to do so as well.

She woke her computer up - how long had she been standing there? - and clicked on the first database she found, determination flooding her. The small seed of hope quietly blooming inside her she clutched to her heart.

**So, I'm sure it was obvious that I jumped to after Awakened. The first chapter was just an introduction as well as a warm up, and this is actually somewhat progressing through the planned storyline. This chapter was also fairly short - sorry about that, but I'm trying not to rush the story and let it grow properly.**

**Thanks for reading! Feel free to PM me with any questions.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Okay, I admit it, I really suck at updating. So here's a chapter, which is about two months too late. During those two months, I actually started pre-writing chapters in the hopes that I could release them on an actual schedule for once. **

**Enjoy. **

His body ached, his bruises shrieked occasionally, and his head hurt like hell from the visions he and Carver had endured, but at least he was coming home.

Isaac didn't think he would have made it this far. After the _Ishimura_, and then Titan station, and then the Moon, he supposed his luck would have to run out eventually.

Well, maybe it already had.

He had zero contact from Ellie, a fact that nagged at him and turned his insides to churning acid. Of course, they were extremely far away from Earth, if she'd gotten there, but he had been able to contact Nicole when she was on the _Ishimura _several years ago, and that had been of a fair distance as well. It wouldn't make sense for her to not be receiving them.

Did she not recognize his RIG ID? No, that was impossible. She would know it by heart. That Isaac was sure of. He was on her speed dial, for God's sakes. She would have answered immediately, had she known it was him.

That was the problem, then. Her RIG must not have been able to identify his ID.

He was probably being blocked, but by whom? As far as he knew, nobody had followed them to Tau Volantis other than Danik and his group, but most of them were dead and gone, just the way they all preferred it. Santos was gone, Norton was gone, and so was Buckell. And although he and Carver had argued while on the _Terra Nova_, Isaac didn't think he would be butt-hurt enough to jam his signal. The only person he could think of was Norton, but he didn't have a clue why. The former captain hadn't had much against him personally, other than Ellie...

Isaac finally broke the silence, unable to keep his suspicions to himself. "Carver, do you think Norton would have had any reason to block me from RIG transmissions?"

Carver looked at him sideways. "Not really. Why?"

"I was just thinking about if any of mine got to Ellie... Did Norton ever know how to block people?"

"I don't know about Ellie, man. But it's not that hard to block people. He used to do it as a prank back during training. If he can figure it out, it must be pretty simple."

Isaac smirked. "Must be."

It was possible that he had been blocked the entire time and had just never known it. After all, he had been mostly concerned with rescuing Ellie first, and not many long-distance links had been needed.

His hunch was confirmed when he opened up his RIG menu and entered the linking section. Sure enough, there were numbers and words he didn't remember entering in the options for blocking transmissions.

"Shit," Isaac said. He tried not to show how amazed he was. "So Norton was blocking me, was he? When did that happen?"

Carver shrugged, his expression only mildly surprised as if he hadn't put those extremes past the captain. "No clue. It was probably back on the Eudora, when you were still unconscious. I wasn't around the entire time you were out – it was probably then."

"That doesn't make sense," Isaac replied, frowning. "How did I contact you and Ellie afterward, then?"

"... Maybe it blocks long-term transmissions. You never know, I remember him being able to jam your signal occasionally, like when he locked you in the elevator after the Nexus autopsy."

That was true. Isaac said, "So because he's not experienced with this kind of thing, maybe he didn't do a thorough enough job of blocking every single link I tried to make. That would explain why I was able to contact you most of the time."

"Yeah, but not Ellie sometimes."

"Well, we know Norton was a jealous bastard." He took another look at the blocking specifications. "Yeah, he tried to block me from Ellie specifically, but here it only says nineteen percent, meaning that only nineteen percent of my transmissions to her would be blocked for sure. And here it says that ninety percent of my long-range transmissions are completely blocked." He hoped that the last one he had sent, shortly after the Moon's demise, had gotten through. At least she would know he had survived if that one had made it past this particular obstacle.

"What reason did he have to block you, though?" Carver wondered.

"I have no idea. Let me think about that one." It was easy for Isaac to undo the blocking that Norton had placed. A simple click was all it took, and from now on, he would be vigilant as to whether or not somebody was inhibiting his communications.

But why would Norton do that to him? Back on the Eudora, he had no reason to. Ellie hadn't contacted him at all and as far as Norton had known, they still weren't on very good terms. There had to be another reason.

Isaac mused aloud, "I wonder if EarthGov had something to do with it. If Norton's superior gave him orders or something, when you guys came to get me."

Carver scratched his head, as though debating what to say. "Well, before our superior was killed, she did tell us something – she said to retrieve you at all costs, and after the mission to bring you to EarthGov headquarters. Or what's left of it," he amended.

Isaac couldn't believe it. "What the hell... So they still need me for more, then? I thought they were done with all that."

"She never explained. Only Norton knew, and the ass considered me too lowly of a rank to be in the know. But I did overhear them discussing plans before we left."

"It's too bad he was so egotistical. He might have actually been useful this time," Isaac remarked. "Well, now we know a little bit... Except for why exactly they're blocking me."

"So he blocked you from contacting long-distance, and certain people. Maybe they don't want you finding anything out before you get to Earth. Maybe EarthGov's goal was to intercept you and rope you into another mission."

Isaac scoffed. "Like hell that would work." But he had to admit that there was some truth to what Carver was saying. "Well, I guess if that was the case... They might have blocked me from Ellie in addition so she wouldn't be able to come and get me before they could do anything. Or maybe they want to use her as a bargaining chip, to get me to do what they want."

"They probably think you're dead now," Carver reminded him. "None of our squad came back, which means that there's no point in them going after you. Norton most likely put the block on your RIG transmissions because his supers assumed you'd get out alive. Ellie probably thinks we're dead too. So they might have just decided to get Ellie instead, figure out what she knows."

His blood rose at the thought, but he managed to stay calm. There were bigger forces here than his own stubbornness, and no matter how badly he wanted to destroy anyone who harmed Ellie, he knew she was capable of taking care of herself as long as he didn't do anything heroically stupid. And of course, he couldn't risk killing both of them with insubordination in the event that EarthGov realized he wasn't dead and came to get the both of them.

He would actually have to go along with it for once in that case. Getting killed by his own tenacity was probably one of the most idiotic ways to die. But he still needed to find Ellie before anything happened to her, so he mentally added that to his priority list. He'd have to explain what was going on as well, in light of the recent developments.

And what about Carver? What would he do, without a family or job to return to?

"So let's say they want just me and Ellie," Isaac said, raising an eyebrow at Carver. "What are you going to do?"

"What is this, twenty questions or some shit?" When Isaac didn't say anything and simply looked at him, unfazed by his bluntness, he grumbled. "Fine. I guess – maybe I would come with you guys. I don't have any other plans, and EarthGov doesn't exactly have complete power as it is. And no way in hell am I siding with the Unitologists."

"Huh. Well, I guess it'll be good to have some backup."

Carver didn't respond, but there wasn't a lot of tension hanging in the air like there had been lately, so Isaac shifted against the headrest of his seat and tried to get comfortable. It appeared that they still had some time before Earth would be in sight, and his head pounded a little too much for his liking.

He closed his eyes and tried hard not to think too much. Ellie would be safe. She was smart. She would be waiting for him, at home, like she always had before they separated -

In his head, he remembered a single eyeball speared on a bloody screwdriver and he jolted awake.

Nope. He wasn't sleeping, no matter how much he needed it.

He clenched his fists around the steering apparatus and set his gaze firmly on the tunnel of blue light that stretched out endlessly before them. He hadn't failed her – he had sent her back for her own safety, but what if he wasn't able to protect her in the end? It didn't matter how many times she proved herself with her line gun and plasma cutter. He would always be worried for her, especially now that the Moons were awake, and they were hungry, and they had their sights set on Earth.

He didn't think he could bear it if she died in the end. He had lost too much already; losing _her _would be unthinkable. No matter what happened, he would have to stay with her. They couldn't leave each other behind again.

Jesus. He _really_ had to think about something else.

He checked the readings on the monitors, then breathed a sigh of relief as he realized that they were getting close. Carver had fallen asleep in the other seat, so he said, "Carver! Psst, hey – Carver! We're almost there!"

Carver stirred and it was obvious that he was near-exhausted from lack of sleep. Isaac pitied him briefly, as his own body was thrumming with nervous energy and adrenaline, but he knew they were both eager to return to Earth, where other people who weren't dead or about to be dead still walked the ground.

"What, we made it?" Carver muttered. Isaac nearly rolled his eyes – was he complaining? They'd survived the Terra Nova already. There was nothing to be worried about now.

"Yeah."

"I don't believe it."

The gratingly robotic voice of the older ship's computer announced, "De-shocking to Earth Space in 3, 2, 1."

Isaac leaned forward, earnest to return home and find Ellie.

The blue tunnel around them fizzled into nonexistence as they sped toward the familiar blue and green. The moon loomed up before them and Isaac's eyes widened in alarm, afraid that they were already too late, but he realized it was their moon, the same one that had orbited Earth for countless years and he let out a breath of relief. The Brother Moons weren't here quite yet. They had some time left.

He chuckled, almost ecstatic, as he flicked on the intercom. "Earth Orbital control," he said, "this is Isaac Clarke aboard the CMS Terra Nova, over."

Disheartening static greeted him, the response filled with what almost sounded like growling. He frowned. He had been hoping for something more, maybe an actual human being to talk to.

"Are you sure you got the right channel?" Carver asked, coming to stand over him. "This is over two hundred years old."

"Yeah. No, I changed it over right... Trust me, it's right."

Carver took the other radio, trying his luck. "EarthGov Command, this is Sergeant John Carver – do you read me? Is anyone there?"

His attempt didn't yield any results either, just the same shrieking static. The display flashed with an orange warning sign.

Isaac was beginning to feel concerned now. He tapped the frighteningly orange screen, trying to get a different response. Nothing worked. He turned back to the other monitor as Carver muttered, "It's weird."

"United Mining traffic flow, do you copy?" The same eerie static. "Lunar flight control, this is CMS Terra Nova, does anyone read us out here?" he asked loudly, panic seeping into his voice.

There was a different reply, but it definitely wasn't what he was listening for. He could distinctly hear shrieking and guttural growls, and he exchanged a horrified glance with Carver as human screams became audible.

Isaac snapped his head to face the sight in front of them as the screams became louder, almost as if it was outside the ship or even inside with them, and his heart stopped as a Brother Moon rose slowly beyond Earth's horizon, menacingly hovering over the planet as it was joined by two others.

"Oh, God," Carver breathed.

"Oh, no," Isaac choked out.

Another Moon, almost directly in front of the ship, ascended slowly, as if to block their path. The screaming intensified, and Isaac's blood ran cold.

An explosion of pain burst inside his head. Everything was filtered in yellowish-orange as the pain clenched him tightly, and he yelled in equal parts fear and agony as the Moon blocked out the last ray of sun and cast them in darkness.


	4. Chapter 4

**So… Hello again… **

**You know what? I'm not gonna bother explaining; I know I've kept you waiting long enough. **

_Ellie. I have to get to her. She's in danger. _

He fought against the darkness in his eyes, clouding his mind, as he struggled to return to conscious reality. It was more difficult than it had ever been in his entire life.

What had happened? How long had he been out?

Was Earth all right?

His eyelids seemed to weigh a thousand tons. He concentrated mightily, trying to wake up his body and clear the fog in his head, to no avail. It felt as though he'd been knocked out with a tranquilizer fit for a Brute, or actually knocked out by a Brute. The effort of trying to wake himself up was too much. He gave up, discovering that he was actually quite tired, and that he hadn't rested in what seemed like forever...

What about Ellie?

He jerked upright, eyes blinking open in the bright sun.

Wait a second. There had been absolutely no light in the cockpit when he had passed out. The Moon had seemed to swallow the ship, swathing them in shadows. Where was it now?

As he staggered upright, realizing that he must have fallen out of his chair, he searched the space around Earth to see what the Moons had done. He half expected to see the grotesque innards of another Moon, something he'd hoped never to see again.

_Impossible._

He rubbed his eyes with his fists, trying to see the truth. The same sight came back to him: Earth, still whole and intact, green land and blue water, surrounded by the almost-empty expanse of the diamond-studded velvet of space.

And the only other body around it was their gray stone moon. No Brethren Moons.

"What the fuck?" he breathed.

They couldn't have just come and gone. They weren't paying a visit. Earth hadn't been harmed at all, but he knew what he had seen – they were ready to tear Earth apart, make it into another Tau Volantis for some other civilization to find.

But they weren't there.

How could they have just left like that? They'd been planning to come to Earth for a while. It wouldn't have made sense for them to wait any longer. They would have invaded as soon as possible to spread their network of Markers and death.

Was this some sick dream? His mind could be trying to convince him that everything was okay if something terrible truly had happened, protecting his sanity. He remembered having weirdly hazy delusions after the Moon incident during his mini coma, but this had none of that ethereal quality. He felt quite awake as it was.

A moment passed, and his aches and pains came back to him with a stabbing pain. Judging by the dull pounding in his head, he definitely wasn't dreaming.

_What the actual fuck is going on?_

"Carver," he said, shaking the EarthGov soldier awake. "Hey, wake up, man."

"Ugh – what?" Carver grumbled irritably. His brown eyes swiveled in their sockets, wide and deliriously confused. Then he sat bolt upright as he evidently remembered what had happened just before their blackout, and snapped, "Shit. What's going on? How much time do we have left?"

Isaac heaved him up from his prone position on the floor and pushed him toward the cockpit window.

He watched the other man for a second, unsettled by the strange silence between them that hardly ever existed. Carver seemed very afraid of whatever the hell had just happened.

"I don't get it," Carver said quietly. Isaac could hear the trepidation in his voice. He'd only ever heard it on a few occasions before. "They – they were right there. I saw them. The Moons. Where are they now? They don't just disappear, something that big can't just leave in two seconds."

"I don't understand either... It's impossible."

He stepped closer to the glass, pushing on it with his fingertips to see if it was real. If something had changed, if something was defying the laws of the universe, he would know none of this was actually happening. "How could–"

A bolt of lightning seemed to hit his brain as he put two and two together. "Shit. How long were we unconscious after Tau Volantis?"

Carver cocked an eyebrow. "Maybe three weeks...? Why does it matter?"

"We were unconscious for three whole weeks. No sustenance, no water, no life support except for our own RIG suits. No human, no matter how advanced the technology, can survive that long without some sort of aid. The Moon did that to us. It did something to our bodies that shouldn't have been possible. And remember – you and I have both had dementia. But we've gotten rid of it before, because we realized the exposure to the Marker affected our minds and made us see and hear things that weren't real."

Carver shrugged. "Yeah. What are you thinking?"

Isaac sighed. "Come on, Carver – the Markers come from the Moons, remember? We fought a Moon and afterwards were knocked out for weeks at a time. Our exposure to a single Marker gave us some hallucinations, dementia – a whole Moon could completely wreck us! Maybe even on the Terra Nova, we were just hallucinating."

He was pacing now like insanity was finally taking root, but he didn't care. He had to know. Everything was becoming clearer and clearer, and he was going to figure it out.

"We did pass out, just now, and that could have been from the Moons. Marker signals in greater amounts would give us bigger hallucinations, worse ones, like the one that we just experienced."

Carver's eyes widened. "And the hallucinations were all in that sickly orange light... So were the Moons, I remember that much."

"Shit, yeah. So it was a hallucination."

"Why the delayed reaction, then? We – well, I did, I don't know about you – only experienced that after that last Moon showed up."

Isaac frowned. "Maybe... Maybe our minds were trying to resist. Maybe they've felt it enough times that they were able to block everything except what we were seeing, because the hallucinations come mainly visually. Who knows?" He inhaled deeply, almost bursting his lungs, and then released it. His hands trembled at his sides and his head buzzed unpleasantly. He frowned, and clenched his fists tightly, hoping he could get it together. _It's okay. She'll be fine, nothing's happened. _"So any time everything seems to go to hell – make sure it's not your own mind turning against you. The dementia from something as big as the Moon is going to severely screw us up. We have to make sure it's just the dementia before we try anything stupid."

He felt like he was going to be sick as the words, completely impacting him with their implications, wove a gruesome reality before him: his own mind, turning against him once more... Even in his own head, he could never truly be safe. But he managed to maintain his composure, steeling himself. _I have to be strong... It's the only way we'll get out of this hellish nightmare. _

He watched the blood drain out of Carver's face, but the soldier remained stoic. "Again," he said.

"Yeah. It's happening again."

He had hoped that he would never have to deal with his own mind in utter confusion again, but here he was, talking about his personal hallucinations like it was the weather.

"What about the people on Earth? What happens to them when the Moons come?"

His mouth hardened into a line. "... Prepare for all hell to break loose." People who had no idea what the ghastly effects of the Markers were – well, some casualties would have to be expected. Normal citizens would be confused, manipulated into doing things previously unthinkable. Earth would be thrown into chaos with that many people experiencing dementia.

"And the people who might be immune?"

_Ellie._

"Oh, fuck. They might be affected too. The Marker signal in that large of an amount might mess with their heads, maybe just a little less..."

"Everyone would have some symptoms."

"So pretty much everyone will be screwed," Isaac said, the new knowledge filling his head with all of the coldness of space. "Mass chaos. People won't know who to trust or what's even happening around them."

"How do we stop them from committing suicide?"

"I don't know," Isaac admitted. His own lack of answers frustrated him. "Maybe we can't. We have to focus on finding out a way to stop them before it's all too late." He began pacing again almost frantically in the small space. "If they only use the Markers to send those signals, and then don't do much to attack the planet themselves, we may have a chance. Because if _they _attack us directly, it's over. If we only have outbreaks, we may be able to survive longer, hopefully long enough to attack the Moons themselves and end this madness." He glanced out the window again, towards Earth, and prayed that Ellie had made it back safely.

"... You're planning on finding Ellie first, aren't you?"

Isaac stopped pacing and stared Carver dead in the eye. "Yeah. And she might have picked up some valuable information. You and I both know she wouldn't have just given up on everything."

The soldier backed off a little bit. "Ah, okay. Where do you think she would have gone?"

Isaac abruptly dropped into his pilot seat, tapping the controls once again. The transmission he had tried to make with Lunar flight control wasn't listed in the recent calls – further evidence that they had been hallucinating. He hesitated just before he made the transmission to Ellie, hoping he would get to finally hear something that wasn't just static. "Well, let's find out."

**As always, thank you for reading, and feel free to PM me with any questions. I promise I'll actually try to be more active. **


	5. Chapter 5

**It's official. I'm going to author hell. But, after more than a year away, I think I've finally matured enough to produce some good writing and a solid plot-I might be able to do this poor series justice. Let's hope I'm right.**

The transmission was static, and Isaac's heart dropped sickeningly. He thought he would pass out for a moment, having gotten his hopes up only to crush them down. But eventually it petered out until he was able to hear _her _voice, and she sounded wary, as though she'd gotten plenty of calls from people she didn't know. "Who is this?"

Isaac chuckled, unable to hide the relief that was drowning him. "What, no caller ID?"

Something crashed on the other end and Ellie gasped loudly. "Isaac – I – holy shit! I thought you were dead!"

"Are you disappointed I'm not?"

"Shut up, you, you – oh my God... I can't believe it, you made it..." She broke off and he inhaled deeply, letting his cheeks puff out as he blew out air. He could hear that familiar lump in her throat, and was glad to hear that she hadn't softened up as she eventually coughed past it and kept talking. "Shit, that's the second one I've broken..."

"I guess I owe you a new one."

She chuckled and he knew that all of his memories of her could never do the sound justice. "So, uh, where are you? Are you okay? Where's Carver?"

"Hanging around in space. I'm fine, and–"

"I'm here, it's all good," Carver broke in roughly. "Thanks for remembering me."

Isaac scowled at him, although it never reached his eyes, relieved as he was. "Yeah. Ellie, where are you? We have to come find you – there are some things we've figured out."

"Same here," she responded. "Well, don't panic, but I'm actually at EarthGov headquarters–"

He didn't give her a chance to explain herself as his blood rose.

"What?" he thundered. "Why? Ellie, you _know_ we can't trust them. I mean, Carver and Norton were okay," he hastily added as Carver glared at him, "but that doesn't mean everybody else can be trusted. Those people captured me and forced me into a coma for two years as I built their goddamn Marker. They used me. How do we know they've changed?"

"How do you know they haven't changed?" Ellie challenged him. Isaac could practically feel her glaring at him. "Maybe they've started thinking differently. Look, Isaac, I love you, but not everyone is out to get you. Sometimes it seems that you still don't understand that."

He sighed deeply, realizing she was right. In the past, that was what had driven them apart – his deep mistrust of everyone, manufactured from years of shady deals and treachery. But he would have to learn to trust some people if humanity was to be saved.

Damn, he really hated being wrong.

"... Okay. I'm sorry." He glanced up at Carver, who had some irritating smirk on his face, and rolled his eyes. "Right. We're on our way, then. Just send us the coordinates."

"Will do," Ellie murmured. Sure enough, his wrist monitor lit up with a new message. Isaac immediately sent it to the ship's computer, allowing it to calculate the route. He felt better as he thought about returning home, to Earth, people that might not kill him on sight for once.

"Can you do us a favor, Ellie?" Carver added.

"Sure… What, exactly?"

"Tell them that we're coming. EarthGov, I mean. I don't figure they'll be too glad to have us arrive unannounced. If I know them, they'll need time to pick their jaws up off the floor and start making plans."

Isaac grinned. "Smart move."

Ellie laughed, and just the sound filled Isaac with warmth. "That's fine. I'll tell them."

"Good. Now let's get going. We'll see you soon, Ellie."

Isaac moved to end the transmission, but Ellie said, "Wait! Just – promise me you'll be careful, okay? I don't want to lose you again. Not—not after the first two times." Her voice was very soft.

He smiled again, determined to come home in one piece. "I promise, Ellie. Everything will be okay."

"Okay. See you soon."

He wanted to keep talking as long as possible, just to hear her voice, but he knew they had to go. Surprisingly, Carver didn't say anything to him, but when Isaac looked over, he saw him gazing sadly down at his picture of Damara and Dylan.

Heart in his throat, Isaac turned back to his controls. While he had an almost certain chance of reuniting with Ellie, Carver couldn't see his family again until he died. And if he didn't want to give up until humanity could be saved, who knew how long it would take?

Isaac gripped the wheel tightly. If their new mission was a success, Carver would finally have some closure. His family's deaths could be avenged, and he might finally have some peace of mind.

He desperately wanted to give him that much, at least. The man deserved it.

**Short chapter. More will come.**


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